Should We Feel Nervous About The Sudden Rise Of AI?

In a recent conference at the World Government Summit, Klaus Schwab, the chair of the World Economic Forum, made a strong statement about the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and other technological advancements: “Who masters those technologies – in some way – will be the master of the world,” he stated. 

And since late 2022, we have watched ChatGPT gain a tremendous amount of popularity. This AI chatbot was created and trained using academic research, books, and other sources of information.

To make things even more interesting, we can even treat ChatGPT like a friend and have a casual conversation with it. It almost acts as your very own personal assistant because as you use it, it learns from you, and so you can ask countless questions and seek advice from it with decent results. 

According to a study using data from analytics company Similarweb, ChatGPT has also broken the record for the fastest expanding user base. It had roughly achieved up to 100 million in monthly users within two months of its launch in January 2023. As a result, the introduction of artificial intelligence into our society and into our daily lives may be attributed to this new AI paradigm.

Artificial Intelligence Will Become a Significant Part of Our Life Within the Next Two Decades

Artificial intelligence is undoubtedly going to have a big impact on how we will obtain and use the internet for information in the future. AI and androids are expected to play a significant role in our everyday world, and according to Pew Research, “AI and robotics will be integrated into nearly every aspect of most people’s daily lives.”

Also, as noted in the State of AI Report in 2022, more companies are starting their own AI workshops and are even making preparations to participate in AI development. In fact, depending on different adoption scenarios, McKinsey & Company projects that between 400 and 800 million jobs will be lost to automated technology by 2030. Ultimately, multinational firms will reap the benefits as productivity soars – not because of human capital, but because of automated technology.

This should not come as a surprise, given that AI has several remarkable advantages that unquestionably simplify our daily life. For instance, AI can work continuously for hours on end, and for as long as we want, which helps us complete the task at hand faster. Also, AI makes it much simpler to accomplish daily goals by enabling multitasking. Most importantly, since this technology will be able to absorb information considerably more quickly than humans do, it will ultimately assist us in determining the right decision.

Artificial intelligence will outperform humans at a variety of difficult jobs, according to top experts. This involves activities such as composing articles, essays, translating languages, authoring novels, marketing goods, and even performing medical surgeries. This is all set to happen within the next two decades.

Artificial intelligence will undoubtedly improve our daily lives in a number of ways. At some level, it's exciting, but I'm also dubious about this new technology, considering that a recent report has further revealed that there is a 50% chance, according to experts, that AI will outperform humans in every job in 45 years.

There is a 50% chance, according to experts, that A.I. will outperform humans in every job in 45 years.

Now, I’m not making the clichéd “AI will steal our jobs” argument, but I'm not sure if our society's heavy reliance on AI will necessarily be for the better, given that it will eventually be able to replace everyone's jobs.

It's fairly safe to say that I'm not the only one who has these feelings; the truth is, there is a lot of discussion about how artificial intelligence will affect society. On the one hand, there is a subset of individuals who contend that AI enhances the quality of daily life by doing both challenging and even basic jobs better than we can, which would make things more manageable overall.

On the other hand, others claim that mankind could become too heavily dependent on AI. For instance, human ingenuity and imagination produce some of the most thought-provoking and profound works of literature and art. What will it imply for society when we observe AI being able to produce works of art and write books, similar to how humans do?

Should We Feel Nervous About the Rise of AI?

Does the emergence of AI, even in creative sectors, imply that human creativity will change from its most pure and unique condition and permanently shape how such endeavors are carried out? Moreover, is it always a good thing if it does?

This is already the subject of debate. The Lensa AI app by Prisma Labs was recently released, and it uses artificial intelligence to turn your selfies into custom works of art and portraits. The AI art app is built on Stable Diffusion, a machine-learning model that can produce lifelike digital images from detailed descriptions. 

The app became very popular due to its capacity to produce realistic art in various categories, such as canvas-like paintings, anime, or sci-fi styled designs. And as of December 2022, it had over one million active users from all over the world using the platform to produce stunning AI portraits of their photos, or "magic avatars," which became the newest online trend.

But despite its enormous popularity, some people criticized the AI platform, claiming that the AI system was stealing artwork from real artists. Digital artist Meg Rae, for instance, criticized the app in a warning she shared on social media: “If you've recently been playing around with the Lensa App to make AI art ‘magic avatars’ please know that these images are created with stolen art through the Stable Diffusion model.”

Tony Ho Tran from The Daily Beast also remarked on the controversy and claimed that the Lensa app is committing “arguably the biggest art heist in history.” He said, “Artists work wasn’t taken by a team of thieves in an Ocean’s Eleven-style caper. Rather, it was quietly scraped from the web by a bot – and later used to train some of the most sophisticated artificial intelligence models out there.”

This is only one of many problems related to the development of artificial intelligence and the effects it has already had on the creative industries. The discussions spark some crucial concerns, the first of which is whether AI can produce amazing works of art without having the human component and raw emotion that are frequently appreciated in art. The usage of AI-generated art has also sparked discussion about how technology can diminish human originality and talent. After all, if we stop pushing our brains to work beyond their comfort zone, to explore that creativity, and instead let them become lazy, they will naturally atrophy and deteriorate.

Closing Thoughts

The world we live in today is rapidly and dramatically changing. From the way we work to the way we communicate to the way we think about what it means to be an artist, all will be significantly altered by the rise of AI. As this technology develops and is embraced across various facets of our society more extensively, its impact will most likely keep expanding. 

It will continue to be important to maintain a healthy distance between AI and our humanity. We must avoid unintentionally embracing a society and all its facets completely ruled by technology. 

It's frightening to think of humans relying on AI for even the most basic of tasks, as this could lead to widespread societal stagnation and apathy. The scariest aspect of it all is that we would lose our identity, which is what makes us human at our core, with AI transforming humanity into humanoid beings where we fade away into endless, soulless realms of augmented reality.

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